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Author Topic: Sidestand extender mod - NOW IN PRODUCTION - Calling it the BIGFOOT mod.  (Read 3138 times)
MarkT
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VRCC #437 "Form follows Function"

Colorado Front Range - elevation 2.005 km


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« on: March 31, 2018, 07:05:17 PM »

Putting this post here on the tech board so it doesn't scroll off quite so fast.

The mod is prototyped and tested on my Jade.  I'm pretty happy with it.  All the parts except the OEM sidestand and the internal nut, are polished stainless.  Oh, and the chrome nut cover.  OK the FOOT is made of 0.120 wall 304 SS, polished.  The bolt is SS.  

Maybe a caveat to the obvious.  This mod is if your bike leans too hard, for whatever reason, generally because of some mod like a tall tire (eg. Austone Taxi Tire) or you raised the suspension, or your bike is just too hard to stand up off the stand now and you want to fix that.  Whatever reason.  As always, you are responsible for the mods you add to your bike.  I will in no way be responsible if you add this mod and for some reason your bike is too lightly leaning and it falls to the right and damages something or somebody.

BIGFOOT supports two levels of lift, 1-5/16" and 11/16".  Height set by you.  The bottom face has slightly more area than the OEM foot, and it's flat so it should resist sinking in hot asphalt slightly better.  Also, this is light enough in weight that the sidestand spring supports it OK.

Here is BIGFOOT in it's HIGHLIFT setting, lift 1-5/16". You can simulate the change with a 2X4 which is slightly higher than the high setting of BIGFOOT. The goofy looking top of the nut cover is a reflection.  





In the lower, 11/16" lift setting:



The way we will have to do this, is with a core exchange on the sidestand.  Right now I have 6 of them on hand and 4 more enroute.  Because there's some machining and welding on the sidestand (weld is also stainless), and I am powdercoating them with clear acrylic to prevent rust.  I will be pricing the cores at $60 (of course they are used, but they seem to hold up well) and will pay you $50 when you return yours. The difference is a handling fee, and the clear powder coating.  I have determined my costs on this mod and I can live with a retail  of the mod at $45.  Which I think is an OK price for what it is.  I am running the first batch of these now.  As always, FCFS (first come-served).  I think easiest might be to use paypal to my registered email which is valkstuff@horseapple.com Or you can call in a CC. My contact info is on every page at www.horseapple.com. However this mod isn't there yet. Total will be $45 + $60 + $15 (priority mail) = $120.  Again, return your sidestand and get $50 back.  Or you don't have to, if you think you want to rollback the mod - but the mod is reversible except the foot has a hole in it, if you remove BIGFOOT.  And an invisible weld on the underside of the original foot. The first 6 orders will ship this week as I complete them. Then the next 4 when the add'l sidestands I bought get here & I fit them to BIGFOOTs.  After that, I expect ongoing orders, as the sidestand "cores" are returned to me.  Bonus, swapping out the sidestand is a great time to add some synthetic heavy grease inside the pivot surfaces which is probably dry right now unless that's part of your maintenance regime.  I can't believe Honda didn't add a zirk there but OTOH they don't seem to believe in them.  Or lock washers.  Or thread lockers.  Or star washers on electrical grounds.  Go figure.

Oh, BTW I expect to have some of these at Inzane drawings as well.  Not likely to have a LOT of them to sell as I'm riding there from here.  But I will have a pull-behind trailer so there will be some capacity.  Not setting up a booth.


 Now more pics:

The parts.  Note the weld on the bottom - stops the foot from twisting in the high position.



Installing the foot:  put the nut with side lever inside:



Install the bolt & tighten:



Tap the nut cover on:





« Last Edit: March 31, 2018, 09:32:03 PM by MarkT » Logged


Vietnam-474 TFW Takhli 9-12/72 Linebckr II;307 SBW U-Tapao 05/73-4
MarkT
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Posts: 5196


VRCC #437 "Form follows Function"

Colorado Front Range - elevation 2.005 km


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« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2018, 06:53:38 AM »

Thanks guys.  Several orders in - still a couple available on this first run.  Building production jigs now, expect shipments to go out towards the end of the week.  CHEERS!
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Vietnam-474 TFW Takhli 9-12/72 Linebckr II;307 SBW U-Tapao 05/73-4
Brian
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Posts: 996


Monroe, NC


« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2018, 02:57:58 AM »

Nice modification Mark T.  :cooldude:Using this, one will definitely need to pay attention to the parking lot slope. I have been in a staging area where the ride planners had us all parking our scooters leaning towards the uphill side. Not good!!!!One of the bikes in the group stood tall anyway, a slight breeze picked up and blew this bike over. There was close to 3,000 bikes, they had us in lines close together. You guessed.....like dominoes the bikes went over. One guy standing beside his bike stopped it by holding his upright. If I remember correctly he was number 6. Some planners of these charity rides have no idea if they don't ride. Good luck Mark T.  A big help to us riders getting up there in age. FYI, I just followed your headlight relay schematic to take the headlight load off the handlebar switch. cooldude
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flash2002
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Posts: 268


Montreal, Que


« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2018, 04:11:33 AM »

I don't know about others but I think this is way overpriced.  Just in parts is a few bucks and a person with a bit of skill can make is own . It doesn't have to be all chrome and shiny, it can be painted. It is a good idea but for that price, I will make my own and it will be a lot cheaper. Sorry about this answer Mark but, I don't like to pay for stuff I could make for a lot cheaper.
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RDKLL
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VRCC #1231 VRCCDS #271

Mesa, AZ


« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2018, 04:19:48 AM »

I don't know about others but I think this is way overpriced.  Just in parts is a few bucks and a person with a bit of skill can make is own . It doesn't have to be all chrome and shiny, it can be painted. It is a good idea but for that price, I will make my own and it will be a lot cheaper. Sorry about this answer Mark but, I don't like to pay for stuff I could make for a lot cheaper.
Hey Flash, that is what is great about America...you will not be forced to buy this. I am also sure Mark would say build your own. Like everything else, a good deal is anything where both parties are happy with the transaction. Personally I have purchased 2 sets of his exhaust and the bolt on adapter and could not have been happier...
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MarkT
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Posts: 5196


VRCC #437 "Form follows Function"

Colorado Front Range - elevation 2.005 km


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« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2018, 06:47:35 AM »

Flash. Who is not American - yeah you get to pay a slightly higher shipping cost - as well as the exchange rate. "way overpriced"? Really?  Have you ever made anything and brought it to market? The labor involved to make this is more than you think.  These aren't made in China with their cheap labor.  It is made to support 2 positions as delivered.  It's also removable so one can rollback to stock with just a 19mm (or 3/4") wrench. Making a product that supports a rollback is generally more costly than not - this would be cheaper if it was welded on - and my prototype was.  The $120 cost includes an OEM sidestand because I can't assume you can do the needed mods to it that I can.  Return yours and get $50 back, so the cost is then $45 + shipping and handling.  Actually my pay to make these is pretty poor and I am questioning if it's a good product for me - right now considerably less than minimum wage. And if it takes off - guess what, China will rip it off.  Unfortunately I have already bought ten sidestands for the core exchange so I'm commited at least long enough to make a bunch of them to try to get the time for each reduced, and recover my investment to at least break even. I am out hundreds now actual money not considering time.  No one is making you buy one - make it yourself and find out, it takes several hours and you won't like the pay/hour you are saving.  I'll bet you don't have the tooling and machining skill I do - but if you do, most won't.  That's a large drill press, large high-speed buffer, wire wheel grinder, MIG welder with SS wire (not cheap), powder coater and oven and custom jig to hold them upright in the oven, die grinders with carbide burrs and air compressor, chop saw, 4 1/2" angle grinder with cutoff wheel, flap-blender wheel, and steel grinder wheel (I use 3 angle grinders with ea setup), access to stainless thickwall square tubing w/o buying a large quantity.  The bolts, nuts, and chrome nut covers are also sold in quantity - I have not seen them sold individually online and Ace and True Value don't carry them.  You won't be able to buy the materials below my retail sales price and that's without covering the cost of your time for labor attempting to rip off my design.  And never mind the design and prototyping cost, and marketing.  Folks w/o experience at bringing a product to market have little idea of what is involved and the costs.

More work to make this than you think.  But I am not going to write a DIY tech instruction on the details of how to rip off my design.  That will happen soon enough by China without my helping them.

BTW.  There is virtually NO ONE making products for the Valkyrie 1500 anymore.  Almost all abandoned this community for bigger markets.  So be sure to not patronize and post negative against who remains.  

Brian - yep that's true.  One needs to pay attention to the slope even now before the Bigfoot mod. So Honda made it lean pretty far and they get harder to pick up if you made it lean more with a tall tire or if one isn't Arnold Schwarzeneggar.  Try to pick parking spots w/o a lot of angle to them.  Or back in as we usually do, towards the curb.  You can also use the 11/16" setting on Bigfoot instead of the 1 5/16" for less lean correction.  I'm using the high setting on Jade, with the ATT tire and 13" Progressive 444's.  Have not had to be concerned with the lean yet and we get lots of wind here.

Thanks Rdkill.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2018, 07:56:13 AM by MarkT » Logged


Vietnam-474 TFW Takhli 9-12/72 Linebckr II;307 SBW U-Tapao 05/73-4
rockbobmel
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Greenfield MA


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« Reply #6 on: April 04, 2018, 08:50:03 AM »

Mark T contributes an amazing amount of knowledge and help here. He was kind and helpful to me. He isn’t going to get rich selling these. You are also getting his thoughtfulness and quality. If I end up needing one of these, I would pay the small cost- gladly.
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2002 Valkyrie GL1500CD
1996  Shadow 1100 ACE
old2soon
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Posts: 23402

Willow Springs mo


« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2018, 09:09:27 AM »

Mark-T is Right. Very few vendors for our Phatt Ghurls are left. After helping Ross-da prez-get his last batch of trailer hitches ready for powder coating AFTER the guy with the water jet equipment got the raw material into a the shape of a trailer hitch there are other vendors involved in the manufacture of the hitches then final assembly. da prez has the tools and I KNOW no one Gave him the tools. Plus the knowledge to put the tools to use PROPERLY. And B T W Mark-T cursed nice lookin side stand raiser BIGFOOT thingy there!  cooldude I'll stop here fore I piss myself off. RIDE SAFE.
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Today is the tommorow you worried about yesterday. If at first you don't succeed screw it-save it for nite check.  1964  1968 U S Navy. Two cruises off Nam.
VRCCDS0240  2012 GL1800 Gold Wing Motor Trike conversion
saddlesore
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Posts: 1579



« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2018, 10:19:12 AM »

I've looked at the side stand myself as it's getting harder to stand the bike up.  The design is way better than I could have come up with and well worth the money.    I'm worried about going over to the other side.   I have to get back on the bike to get the feel.
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DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
flash2002
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Posts: 268


Montreal, Que


« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2018, 11:48:53 AM »

Sorry Mark T, I didn't want to say it was a bad thing, just that is was expensive for me ( shipping and exchange )  by the time I get it . I could imagine it's time consuming to make, sometimes I make my own tools I know what you mean. Again, sorry if you thought I was trashing your product I know you have good stuff.
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Jess from VA
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No VA


« Reply #10 on: April 04, 2018, 03:00:50 PM »

Thanks for all you do Mark.   cooldude

If you don't want Mark's goods or services, don't get them.  He won't mind.  

For those who want a Bigfoot, it's a nice service. 

For Mark, it's probably more of a PITA, then a way to fund a new house.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2018, 03:19:40 PM by Jess from VA » Logged
Savago
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Posts: 1994

Brentwood - CA


« Reply #11 on: April 05, 2018, 07:34:01 AM »

If it was made for Harleys, it would cost 3x more...

Hey, that may be a good idea: put an eagle on top of it and sell it for HDs for 3x the price.
 Grin
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